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Pokémon Champions just got an official release date, and while I’m excited to finally play it on April 8th, a question looms:
Is Pokémon Champions Pay-To-Win?
It’s impossible not to ask this question when looking at its other sibling on mobile, Pokémon Unite, which has become extremely predatory with its microtransactions over the years and, as a result, is pay to win.
This is concerning because Pokémon Champions will be the home of VGC for years to come, and if the monetization is not placed correctly, it can ruin it forever.
While judging if a game is P2W or not, the first thing we need to do is learn about its in-game currencies, see how they are used, and see how they are obtained.
How to Obtain Victory Points in Pokémon Champions
Victory Points (VP) are Pokémon Champions’ main currency and are used for everything. From purchasing battle items and Mega-Stones, to cosmetics and battle themes, and even training your Pokémon.
This is already an issue if the amount you gain is low. You get Victory Points from battling, and from the trailers it showed you get a measly 200 per win. And to put things in perspective, a Mega-Stone costs 2000 VP, meaning you’d need to win 10 games to purchase a single stone.
Training Tickets and Quick Tickets in Pokémon Champions
Training Tickets and Quick Tickets are another currency in Pokémon Champions and are used to train your Pokémon, and meet new Pokémon without spending Victory Points. From their website they mention these tickets are obtained primarily via the Season Pass, and there is no confirmation whether you can purchase them or not.
You can also get a few of them if you purchase the starter pack, which will definitely give you an edge over someone that doesn’t. You can skip the grind for VP entirely at the beginning and build a good team right from the start.
Can I Bring EV-Trained Pokémon From Home to Pokémon Champions?
I’m desperately hoping we can bring our own EV-trained Pokémon from Home to Champions so I can skip most of the VP grind required to train.
They’ve mentioned we can transfer “Battle Ready Pokémon” from Home but did not elaborate further. Although, if this is possible, then people that do have a mainline Pokémon game with compatible Pokémon will have a slight advantage.
Training Pokémon costs a lot of VP. In the time it takes to grind VPs to train a single Pokémon, I can EV-train an entire team in Pokémon Scarlet.
Does Pokémon Champions Have a Battle Pass?
Yes, as mentioned previously, Pokémon Champions will feature a Battle Pass, and I don’t know why they left this information out of the Overview Trailer. So far, we know you can get Mega-Stones, Pokémon, and Tickets.
While there is a free pass, most of the good rewards are shown to be in the paid version, which adds up to my Pay-To-Win suspicions.
In a game where you need to grind for VP to get items, it’s unfair if someone pays for a Season Pass and gets that item for free.
Does Pokémon Champions Require a Subscription?
The game itself does not require a subscription, there will be a Membership. ThiThis allowsu to store more Box Space, have more Battle Teams usable at one time, unlock member-exclusive missions, and unlock exclusive battle songs.
As of now it’s unclear whether this membership will also unlock the Premium Battle Pass. If these two are separate, it will not look good for Pokémon Champions.
Also, I cannot confirm whether the Pokémon Roster Ranch will take up space in your Box or not. If they do, then you will want to upgrade to a paid Membership to get more space, since these Pokémon cannot be transferred to Home.
So, is Pokémon Champions Pay-To-Win?
I’ll be honest, there’s still a lot we don’t know about the game, but looking at the facts we have in front of us, it’s clear that this game is in fact Pay-To-Win, and this is not new in VGC.
In Pokémon Scarlet/Violet, there were several instances where a staple meta Pokémon from another game was allowed into the format, and if you didn’t have that game you’d be at a disadvantage unless you buy the game, or hack the Pokémon in.
I think The Pokémon Company fails to realize what it takes to play their game competitively, and I don’t think I can recommend Pokémon Champions to anyone but hardcore competitors.
Thanks for reading, and if everything goes well, I’ll be seeing you again next time with brand-new content.
